In what has
been a week largely defined by water issues in the Basin, Alan
Mikkelsen, deputy commissioner for the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation, spent his sixth visit to the Klamath Basin this
week touring sites, such as the Klamath Tribes Research Station
and hatchery in Sprague River, and meeting with tribal
representatives and lower and upper basin irrigators.

Mikkelsen
arrived in Klamath Falls on Tuesday with a full schedule packed
with meetings; among them with the Klamath Water Users
Association, the Klamath Tribes and BOR and Oregon Water
Resource Department officials. (OWRD has been holding forums,
too).

He finished
his southern Oregon tour Thursday by meeting with Hoopa and
Yurok Tribes at Central Point in the Rogue Valley.

Mikkelsen
serves as a senior adviser to Secretary of the Department of
Interior Ryan Zinke on issues relating to water resources in the
West, including in the Klamath Basin.

Mikkelsen
didn’t mince words Thursday morning about his thoughts on a
potential drought in the Klamath Basin, though not yet declared
by Klamath County Commissioners, and it’s projected impact to
the region.

‘Surviving 2018’

“The focus of
people in the Basin right now is surviving 2018,” Mikkelsen
said, in an interview with the H&N. “That’s first and foremost
on everybody’s mind. Long-term solutions are frankly a little
bit on the back-burner right now.

“I think the
challenges posed by 2018 are bringing people to an understanding
that we really do need to be talking to each other, we really do
need to be trying to figure out a path forward for the entire
basin.

“In a
large-scale conflict — for lack of a better term — you’re not
going to have everybody on the same page. I don’t have any
illusions about that.

“From an
Interior perspective,” he added, “we are not going to allow the
fishery to ‘blink out,’ and we are also going to do everything
we can to make sure that we don’t have farm and ranch families
‘blinking out.’”

In response
to concerns by some parties of the extinction of certain species
of fish, Mikkelsen said: “We are going to do everything we can.
We do not believe that we’re going to be subject to an
extinction event this year with the fishery because we are doing
everything we can to propagate and support the continued
existence of an important cultural and environmental piece of
this area.”

Faced with
questions from some irrigators throughout the week regarding the
Endangered Species Act requirements, Mikkelsen emphasized there
is “no appetite” in Congress to make changes to the law.

“It’s been
tried in Congress after Congress and it’s no fault of anybody on
the Oregon delegation or anything like that,” Mikkelsen said.
“There are a lot of urban congressmen, both parties, that do not
have any desire to make substantive changes to the ESA. And so
we have to follow the ESA and we will follow the ESA.”

Ag as a way of life

Mikkelsen, a
Montanan and a fourth-generation farmer and rancher, spoke of a
connection with the ag way of life.

“I can pull a
calf, I can doctor a cow, I can bale hay,” Mikkelsen said, “...
I can steer a wheel line, I can shoe and harness your horses, I
can drive your team.”

Mikkelsen
came out of retirement as a former fishing guide to take on his
current post. But that doesn’t mean he’s a stranger to
Washington, D.C. He has worked to elect two of Montana’s last
three congressional members, and as a consultant in the nation’s
capital.

Now he wears
a reminder of his roots around his neck … in the form of a
lanyard with bead work given to him from a tribe back home in
Montana.

Mikkelsen
smiled as he talked about also using the lanyard as a fishing
guide before taking the position in Washington, D.C. His office
has since been relocated to Denver, Colo.

He admitted
the irony, however, of serving in his current position.

“I told him (Zinke)
that I would never, ever, under any circumstance, go back to
D.C. again because I had been there, done that,” Mikkelsen said,
prior to eventually taking on the position.

As Zinke’s
point person for water issues in the Klamath Basin, Mikkelsen
shared his thoughts on the past, present, and future of ag in
the Basin.

“All of the
parties in this Basin recognize how serious the situation is
this year and how serious the situation is going forward,”
Mikkelsen said. “We don’t have the flexibility that we had in
the past.

“From a
federal water manager’s perspective, our hands are tied because
of litigation with injunctive flows, the biological opinion,” he
added. “The future is not going to look like the past, and if
people want to have any control over what that future might look
like, everybody needs to be engaged in these discussions. That
includes tribes and irrigators.”

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